Designer Cupcake Shop to Open

You can buy designer clothes, you can buy designer shoes, and around Thanksgiving you'll be able to buy designer cupcakes.

Cupcake Couture, a San Antonio, Tx. based bakery boutique, is set to open on Main Street, owned and operated by Smithtown resident John Johnson.

The business will feature 16 cupcakes that will be in store all year-long, collectively known as the "Sweet 16," and will also offer flavors by season, from apple spice to cappuccino, pecan pie, s'mores and more.

The crux of the business will be cupcakes but Johnson said special orders will be accepted as well, including speciality full cakes of the Sweet 16 menu, and the location will host special events, parties in their party room, and more. For the business owner or worker-on-the-go, the location will have Wi-Fi access.

Johnson, a former member of the corporate world, working for Mars 16 years as the national sales director, and prior to that working for Nestle for eight years, decided to go into business for himself after accepting a severance package when Mars and Wrigley merged.

"I want to take the knowledge that I have, I enjoy cooking to begin with, let’s see if I can do this thing myself," he said, also stating that he will be the one in the kitchen until the store begins to make a profit, when he'll be able to hire a full-time baker.

Not only is Johnson an owner of Long Island's first Cupcake Couture, he's also a partner and Vice President of the company.

Johnson said his family has career and educational responsibilities, he said they will help in this venture – and his wife Ramona already has.

While looking for a cupcake designer, Ramona, a pre-school special education social worker, spoke with her co-workers who happened to know someone interested in this particular line of work. John met the designer, Denise Jackson, was impressed with her designs, and hired her.

With much of the community staying fit, dominated by gyms and yoga studios, personal training centers and more, Johnson said sugar-free and gluten-free products will also be available, but people should not feel guilty if they stray from that portion of the menu.

"The neat thing about a cupcake is that you’re not buying a whole cake … it’s OK to treat yourself," he said.

Putting any stereotypes of a cupcake store with pink walls aside, Johnson said there is something he is set to offer that caters to the male demographic.

"For the male we have a Guinness cupcake," he said. "The really neat thing about that is it’s sweet up front and on the back-end when you swallow you get that taste of Guinness beer. It gives you sort of like a salty-sweet but it’s a sweet beer.”